Jimi Hendrix Photography

Jimi Hendrix struck the rock scene with a bold style and a spiritual hunger, single-handedly defining the psychedelic era. He had an English following the late ’60s, but his watershed moment with American audiences came at the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival, where he not only unleashed a landmark performance—he even set his guitar ablaze.

The rocket ride to a narrow—but excessively influential—period of superstardom was fueled by monster riffs like “Purple Haze,” “Foxy Lady,” and “All Along the Watchtower,” plus headlining appearances at 1969’s Woodstock Festival and the next year’s Isle of Wight Festival. However, 1970 would also find the guitar hero succumbing to a deadly cocktail of drugs and leaving behind so much untapped potential at a mere 27 years old.

Much deservedly, the Jimi Hendrix Experience was inducted into the 1992 class at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Jimi’s pioneering experiments with controlled feedback and sonic distortion forever transformed the sound of rock music and influenced the playing style of virtually anyone who’s ever picked up an electric guitar.